History YMMV / DeathBattle

* UnexpectedCharacter: Season 6 of DBX features an RunningGag with Ringmaster alienating his co-workers when he invites them to be ''his'' guest announcers, only for them to steal the spotlight because they don't do exactly what he says. After exhausting Wiz, Boomstick, and DUMMI, Ringmaster brings in Perfect Cell from Creator/TeamFourStar's ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged''. He comes completely out of left field and ends up humiliating Ringmaster because dressing up and acting like [[Franchise/TheMuppets Kermit the Frog]] was part of ''his own'' contract for appearing.

* CrazyAwesome:
** ''Chuck Norris vs. Segata Sanshiro'' is an exercise in insanity and one of the most loved Death Battles. When you watch stuff like Chuck punching Segata with the third fist underneath his beard, Segata performing his exploding judo-toss on Chuck into a mountain that ''also'' explodes, and Chuck ''splitting the world in half'' by launching a giant clone of Segata through it, you watch it again because it's awesome and possibly because your mind couldn't really grasp what was going on the first time around.
** Hercule vs. Dan Hibiki is basically a toned-down SpiritualSuccessor. The matchup and most of the things that happen within the fight are sheer lunacy, but it's still a highly engaging duel beyond that.
** The Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton DBX. It's almost as if the guys at [=ScrewAttack=] decided to give the animators the instructions, "Have these two idiots fight and do whatever the hell you want with them." In the end, [[spoiler: a bald eagle voiced by Chad reveals it's the story of how ComicBook/CaptainAmerica became the president of the United States forever.]]
** Deadpool vs Pinkie Pie is a fight between two {{Cloud Cuckoolander}}s with MediumAwareness to whom the fourth wall [[NoFourthWall might as well not exist]]. In fact, they're ''so'' crazy awesome [[spoiler:the rules of Death Battle cannot contain them and they literally break out of their video and leap across several other previous battles before [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou confronting the hosts in the real world]]. Wiz and Boomstick ultimately have no choice but to declare ''themselves'' the losers and just let Pinkie throw Deadpool a birthday party. According to WordOfGod, due to Deadpool's HealingFactor and Pinkie Pie being [[ToonPhysics a living cartoon character]] who can fall apart and just put herself back together on a whim, this was ''literally'' the more logical outcome than them finding a way to kill each other.]]
** The hosts seem to think of [[Anime/{{Voltron}} Pidge]] as such, showing him running over to the enemies while he's carrying a grenade that's about to explode. [[spoiler: In the fight itself, he decides the best thing to do when Voltron's about to get killed by the Megazord is to punch it with the only arm they have (his) and he's the one to grab the sword by flying his head over to it.]]

* ItsTheSameSoItSucks: "She-Ra VS Wonder Woman" has been criticized for being the third episode to feature Wonder Woman, and for her portion of the analysis being very similar to the one in her previous appearance, "Thor VS Wonder Woman". Even the ending analysis was similar, with both episodes giving the win to Wonder Woman in large part due to her feat of blocking the Shattered God's fragments proving that she's massively faster than her opponents. Some people questioned what the point of the episode was, if it ended up giving Wonder Woman yet another victory with pretty much the same reasoning as her previous showing.

** A meta example. Yang's portrayal was not well received for her trigger happiness, love of fighting, and relaxed disposition being cranked up several notches to the point of sociopathy. While many will point out she'd never act like this in canon, some actually consider it an accurate representation for how she is on WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}. [[CompletelyMissingThePoint Despite Barb saying this]] ''[[CompletelyMissingThePoint isn't]]'' [[CompletelyMissingThePoint something she would do in canon.]] .

* CreatorsPet:
** Creator/RoosterTeeth in general and ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' in particular.
*** As ''Death Battle''[='s=] creators were buddy-buddy with the company before Website/ScrewAttack joined them, many people just do not like any of their franchises getting involved with any of the episodes. This is despite that, in over 100 episodes, Rooster Teeth series have only been involved in about 3% of them and one of them is technically a ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' episode.
*** As for ''RWBY'', a lot of the hate stems from the fact that the episode of ''Death Battle'' and the episode of ''DBX'' that involved the series [[spoiler:not only ended up as complete curb-stomp victories]], but also served as advertisements for upcoming Volumes. To this point, many fans accuse the creators of this trope, as they feel that they just couldn't have their opponents kill any of their precious golden geese -- to the point that when Weiss vs. Mitsuru was announced, [[CaptainObviousReveal many viewers automatically declared Weiss the winner without insomuch a preview video being released.]] Of course, some fans assume this puts the creators in a MortonsFork -- either the ''RWBY'' character wins and they're accused of shilling, or the ''RWBY'' character loses and they're accused of faking "no bias" at best, or somehow disrespecting Creator/MontyOum at worst. [[spoiler: Weiss loses, so make of that what you will.]]
** To some detractors, any of the winners in general will come under the accusation of being a favorite of one of the hosts, [[JustifiedTrope reasonable]] or [[InsaneTrollLogic otherwise]]. This is despite the fact Screwattack has let characters they do genuinely love -- sometimes over their opponents, as was notably the case with Goku compared to Superman -- lose several times before.

** The Terminator[=/=]Robocop: a run and gun battle through the city that wouldn't feel out of place from a climax in either of their movies. Since they're both {{Killer Robot}}s, [[ImplacableMan they all continue to walk off increasing levels of damage]] [[ImmuneToBullets from bullets]] [[FrickinLaserBeams to lasers]] [[StuffBlowingUp to explosions]]. [[spoiler: At the end of the battle, Robocop straps what's left of The Terminator to his jetpack, and launches him into the sky to explode - but The Terminator still gets one last one-liner by yelling "[[DefiantToTheEnd I'll be back!!]]"]]

** After fans claimed bias toward RWBY when [[spoiler: Weiss was given the lest brutal death in the show's history in Weiss vs. Mitsuru]], they gave Blake one of the most brutal deaths they've done in DBX when she lost the fan vote to Inuyasha in Blake vs. Inuyasha.
** The DBX Saitama vs. Kenshiro was widely panned on release due its ugly animation and Genos being the one who fought Kenshiro threw most of it. It ending in a draw was also divisive. The recent Superman vs. Saitama is seen as an in improvement in every regard. The animation is far more polished and much crisper, Saitama does all the fighting, and there is a decisive victor this time.

* BrokenBase: Given the very nature of the show, [[BrokenBase/DeathBattle there's so much of it that it has its own page.]]

* ConsolationAward:
** [[spoiler:[[BrokenBase Some fans]] have accused the [[BackFromTheDead Batman]] vs Captain America fight as nothing more than an attempt to appease Batman fans who were still upset over his loss to Spider-Man]]. This is not true however, as many small emergency episodes were planned ''years'' ago in case something happened to screw up the schedule, which is what happened regarding Ben's hard drive during Godzilla vs. Gamera, and having to rebuild Tigerzord vs. Epyon from scratch.
** Some consider [[spoiler:Guts killing Nightmare to be one for anime fans after Gaara and Majin Buu's defeats.]]
** [[DefiedTrope Defied]] with [[spoiler: Goku vs Superman 2. Goku still loses, [[{{Anticlimax}} even quicker than he did the first time]] to boot. Ben and Chad then went on record after the match stating there would be no Round 3 nor will they use any other Superman and DBZ match-ups as a substitute. However, the fact that [[https://roosterteeth.com/post/51844775 Ben has now gone on record]] to admit that he might be open to remastering the Goku vs. Superman battle, to try and improve on their logic given, is worrisome given that no matter who wins the fight, it will just result in severe flame war as bad as or worse than Goku vs. Superman 2, with DBZ fans screaming that Goku lost again, or DC fans accusing Death Battle of precisely this trope.]]
** For Mario fans, [[spoiler:Donkey Kong vs Knuckles. After Mario and Luigi lost to Sonic and Tails respectively, Donkey Kong is the first Mario character in Death Battle to triumph over a Sonic character.]]
** [[spoiler:Mega Man]] wins his DBX battle against [[spoiler:Bomberman after losing against Astro Boy in his Death Battle]]. Although it's then [[spoiler:defied in his second Death Battle appearance in the Mega Man Battle Royale, suffering a curbstomp even greater than his first time]].
** Defied again with [[spoiler: Dan losing against Hercule '''again''' after losing against him in ''One Minute Melee.'']]
** Defied really hard with [[spoiler: Charizard getting [[CurbStompBattle stomped]] by Greymon after losing by a much slimmer margin against Blastoise.]]
** Inverted for [[spoiler:Yang, seeing as after her victory against Tifa, Volume 3 of ''RWBY'' essentially sends Yang through the crapper, culminating in [[AnArmAndALeg her right arm being cut off]].]]
** While it's unlikely SpinOff material is ever decided simply to appease franchise fans, it does seem like a very interesting coincidence in the Season 3 premier of Dante vs Bayonetta [[spoiler:in which Dante wins]], immediately afterwards the pilot episode of DBX features Trish vs Jeanne [[spoiler:with Jeanne winning, meaning the franchise wins are now even]].
** Defied with [[spoiler: Shadow getting horrifically stomped by Mewtwo after already being on the receiving end of one of the most infamous [[CurbstompBattle stomps courtesy of Vegeta.]]]]
** A straight example and inversion for [[spoiler:Cloud and Guts]] respectively, the former killing the latter in their DBX. Before that, [[spoiler:Cloud had lost against Link and Guts had killed Nightmare]] in their respective Death Battles.
** After two losses, [[spoiler:Zero finally brought in a win for the Franchise/MegaMan franchise in his fight with Metal Sonic. Even more appropriately, Metal killed his creator in a previous battle.]]
** Also inverted for [[spoiler:Strider Hiryu, who's killed in his DBX by Zero after winning his Death Battle against Ryu Hayabusa]].
** Lucario [[spoiler:taking the win in its match against Renamon, after they tied in ''One Minute Melee'' and it lost to Ryu in DBX]].
** Played straight in the [[spoiler:Season 4 Finale in two ways. The first involves the results in WebVideo/OneMinuteMelee and the second involves the results in Death Battle itself. In OMM, Sephiroth and Vergil's first fight ended in Vergil's win while the second ended in a tie. In Death Battle, Final Fantasy was on a losing streak (with DBX as it's only consolation). Sephiroth's victory both settles his score with Vergil that had started in OMM, and gives Final Fantasy [[BrokenWinLossStreak its first true victory in Death Battle itself]].]]
** The AmbiguousEnding of Raven vs. Twilight Sparkle is likely one of these [[spoiler:for fans of MLP, because it can easily be interpreted as Twilight being alive at the bottom of the ImpactSilhouette.]]
** For some, [[spoiler: Batman's proteges Nightwing and Terry [=McGinnis=] winning against their respective Marvel rivals could be this towards Batman fans, given the Dark Knight himself has lost a majority of his Death Battles against Marvel's superheroes.]]

* CreepyAwesome: The Joker, Venom, The Meta, and Carnage.

** Awful as [[spoiler:the Hulk]]'s death was in ''Death Battle'', at least he went down swinging. [[ComicBook/CivilWarII His canon death]] is just him getting unceremoniously getting shot by [[spoiler:Hawkeye]] over a misunderstanding.

* ValuesDissonance:
** Possibly part of the massive backlash from ''Goku Vs. Superman.'' Superman is portrayed as rather arrogant and somewhat disrespectful of Goku as well as being cocky and angered by Goku's challenge. These are all traits shared by DBZ villains, thus subconsciously side with Goku. What isn't considered here is the fact that Superman is usually a pretty chill and reasonable person outside of the Death Battle and his attitude here is probably because he doesn't like to fight and Goku is forcing him to.
** This actually gets brought up ''Scrooge [=McDuck=] vs Shovel Knight.'' One panel of Scrooge's comic has him stating that he was taught how to knife fight "Injun" style. Wiz uses this opportunity to explain that Scrooge is an old character, and that times have changed. Boomstick simply calls it racism.

** In Darksied vs. Thanos, [[spoiler:Darkseid trapping Thanos forever in the Omega Sanction: though it's the [[EvilerThanThou more evil villain]] dealing the killing blow, it's still satisfying to see a typically near-unbeatable mass murderer like the Mad Titan get his comeuppance.]]

* FetishRetardant: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] by Boomstick. He doesn't know if he's turned on or grossed out by Bayonetta's hair clothes, and disgusts himself by imagining Bayonetta firing the guns on her feet with weird, misplaced thumbs.
--> '''Boomstick:''' Oh my god! She's covered in hair, and she uses her feet like hands! ''She's a monkey! Monkey witch!''

** Godzilla's... unique style of flight. He uses it to throw Gamera off balance a little while Gamera pushes him into orbit, uses it again to slow his decent into the water after escaping Gamera's SuplexFinisher, and helps determine the sheer force of the atomic breath, [[spoiler:almost ''a trillion tons'' of force.]]
** [[spoiler:After Red's loss while representing the Pokémon franchise against Digimon, some fans have used this as evidence that Ash Ketchum from the ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'' Anime is much better than fans first believed despite his flaws. This is due to Red's loss being attributed to him treating Charizard as a pet/slave, while Ash has gone out of his way to show he treats his Pokémon as friends and tries to keep them out of their Pokéballs as much as possible, and how Red is a complete wuss when it comes to actual fighting when he's the receiver of a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown from Tai, while Ash actually ''has'' jumped into a fight and thrown a punch if the need arises, making him seem surprisingly more competent. Also, there's the fact that Ash's Pokémon ''are'' well capable of thinking and reacting for themselves during a battle.]]

** [[spoiler:Darkseid trapping Thanos forever in the Omega Sanction; though it's the [[EvilerThanThou more evil villain]] dealing the killing blow, it's still satisfying to see a typically near-unbeatable mass murderer like the Mad Titan get his comeuppance.]]

** For those of you disappointed with the outcome of [[spoiler:ComicBook/{{Raven}} vs. [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Twilight Sparkle]]]], be glad that the AmbiguousEnding gives a possibility of [[spoiler:Twilight surviving her fight]]. There's a [[FanFic/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic certain infamous fanfic]] where [[spoiler:an {{Expy}} of Raven with the same name successfully kills Twilight not in the name of drama or to show how evil the character is (or in ''Death Battle's'' case, just to show who would win), but because the author hates Twilight and all that her show stands for]]. And to top it all off, [[Creator/DakariKingMykan the author in question]] [[spoiler:[[https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/798949/death-battle-twilight-sparkle-vs-raven is a very, VERY poor winner]].]]
** Jotaro vs Kenshiro aired on Website/YouTube on March 21st...[[spoiler:the day Jotaro DIES in part 6. Sure enough, Jotaro dies in the fight.]]
** Sam Fisher's appearance in ''VideoGame/GhostReconWildlands'' has a surprisingly sad ShoutOut to the ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' franchise, where Fisher hears that an old stealth expert who wore a bandana and served in the army finally hung up his boots, a reference to [[ExecutiveMeddling Konami's recent mishandling]] of ''Splinter Cell'''s old rival. He remarks with a mixture of fear and sadness that it's only him now, the last of the old guard of stealth-action games. [[spoiler: It makes his death at Snake's hands in Death Battle almost look like an outcome he'd prefer.]]

** [[Franchise/BlazBlue Ragna the Bloodedge]] [[CosmicPlaything and]] [[Manga/{{Berserk}} Guts]]. '''Period.'''

* UnconventionalLearningExperience: Not only do we get a generous handful of math, science, and history lessons throughout the series; but many viewers also gain an interest on the more obscure combatants and their series. Oftentimes, the more obscure combatant of the battle typically draws more interest by fans who go on to learn about them, [[spoiler:Bucky O'Hare and Gamera]] being big examples.

** The end of the Lucario vs Renamon episode had Boomstick comment "Well, this version of The Fox and The Hound ended up with a not so happy ending". The original story of ''Literature/TheFoxAndTheHound'' had a downright DownerEnding where [[spoiler:both main characters died]].

!!General subjective tropes

* AlasPoorScrappy: Slippy might be hated by a large part of the Starfox fanbase, but he's still one of Fox's closest friends, and when Bucky kills him, Fox clearly takes it ''[[RoaringRampageOfRevenge extremely]]'' hard.

** After all of the horrific things he did to [[spoiler: X and Zero, especially in X3, X4, and X5]], it's pretty satisfying for Mega Man X players to see [[spoiler: Ultron slowly assimilate Sigma and erase his mind; much as [[KarmicDeath the latter himself had done to countless Reploids to attain his Maverick armies]]]].

** The rivalry between the Overwatch and Team Fortress 2 fandoms was noticeably heated already, but the outcome of Tracer VS Scout has managed to make the existing friction between them [[FromBadToWorse even worse]].

** [[spoiler:After Red's loss while representing the Pokémon franchise against Digimon, some fans have used this as evidence that Ash Ketchum from the ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'' Anime is much better than fans first believed despite his flaws. This is due to Red's loss being attributed to him treating Charizard as a pet/slave, while Ash has gone out of his way to show he treats his Pokémon as friends and tries to keep them out of their Pokéballs as much as possible, and how Red is a complete wuss when it comes to actual fighting when he's the receiver of a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown from Tai, while Ash actually ''has'' jumped into a fight and thrown a punch if the need arises, making him seem surprisingly more competent. Also, there's the fact that Ash's Pokemon ''are'' well capable of thinking and reacting for themselves during a battle.]]

** Tai gets a lot of crap from the Death Battle fanbase for assaulting Red during the Pokemon vs. Digimon match, with many considering it dishonorable and uncalled for. Many seem to forget that ''Red'' was the one who started the fight by trying to capture Agumon and that ''Red'' was the one who kept escalating the fight even though there were plently of times Red could've backed down, either through realizing he was outmatched or that Agumon already had a partner. Not to mention that Tai has canonically attacked people many times before for intentionally trying to hurt his friends and that it isn't uncommon for the ''heroes'' of the Pokemon franchise to attack the ''human'' villainous trainers (How many times has Ash ordered Pikachu to thundershock Team Rocket?).

** Paralysis is brought up when listing Pikachu's moves and abilities, but it never makes an appearance in the actual fight. In an odd inversion of WereStillRelevantDammit, electrical types (Like what Bianca would qualify as) have been immune to paralysis since Pokemon generation Six, which debuted ''after'' the episode.

** Ben 10 appearing as a character meant this was inevitable, but some felt a few select aliens would have been interesting for Hal to engage. In particular were Feedback and Chromostone due to their EnergyAbsorption powers and Upgrade possibly hacking into the Power Ring. Other popular choices were fan favorites that could have made the fight more entertaining, namely [[LargeHam Rath.]] In fact, all the aliens used were from the Original Series (XLR8, Four Arms, Heatblast, Grey Matter and Way Big) with the exception of Alien X.

** Many felt that the Season 2 finale, Pokemon vs Digimon, failed to live up to the hype that comes with a season finale. Not helped by the fact that Goku vs Superman 2 was treated as a regular episode earlier in the season.

** He's only a Woobie in the actual Death Battle, but [[spoiler: Red really got it bad. Sure, he tried to capture Agumon, but getting the crap kicked out of him by Tai, having his legs broken by Charizard being thrown at him, and being burned alive along with his Pokemon by Wargreymon's Terra Force ranks among one of the most disturbing fates a Death Battle combatant has suffered, especially since he's only '''16 years old'''.]]

* SnarkBait: ''Death Battle'' has a poor reputation in the eyes of most SeriousBusiness "Versus" communities, usually stemming from differences in research methodology. [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment And that's all we'll say about that.]]

* MagnificentBastard: [[spoiler: The Joker, as per usual, manages to win his fight not with brute force, but by manipulating Needles into his hands and stealing his kill.]]

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome:
** Several of the Death Battles can apply, but of note is Thor vs. Raiden. Every subsequent battle ended up like this, due to their animator, Jordan Lange, who started animating the series as of Zelda vs. Peach.
** Goku vs. Superman. It's fully 3D, less polygonal than Link vs. Cloud, and the attack animations are amazing.
** Robocop vs. Terminator. Besides the lack of lipsyncing, the animation is EXQUISITE.
** Godzilla vs Gamera tops the other ones, provided it's [[SpecialEffectsFailure not in the water]].
** For a sprite battle not really based in 3D, Ryu vs. Scorpion looks awesome, including one moment about half-way through the battle that looks like it was hand drawn by both Capcom and Neatherrealm Studios just for this sort of occasion.
** Deadpool vs. Deathstroke continues the trend of spectacular 3D battles. There's a lot going on at any given time, and it looks almost flawless throughout.
** Kirby vs Majin Buu shows how highpace a fight can be even without needing two Dragon Ball characters. Kirby was able to keep up with the lightning fast action making it feel like a true Dragon Battle fight scene.
** The remastered Boba Fett vs. Samus Aran fight is the best looking death battles at the point of making.
** Guts vs Nightmare is almost like seeing a Berserk episode in sprite mode. Gut's brutal fighting style, mix with Nightmare's overwhelming power it's truly a clash as big as their giant swords.
** Iron Man vs. Lex Luthor is yet another gorgeous 3D battle. Even the little things like Iron Man's HUD have an incredible amount of detail to them.
** The premier spy battle: Solid Snake vs. Sam Fisher. For one the fight is a much more suspenseful affair, befitting Snake and Sam's natures. When both of them are not trying to find each other, they engage in three well-animated fistfights, with their pistols and knives added in later.
** Goku vs Superman 2 is arguably even more gorgeous than the first one, with some jaw-dropping back-and-forth action.
** Donkey Kong vs Knuckles is also worth seeing, despite DK's weirdly shape sprite it still manages to entertain adding loony-tunes like comedy between the knuckleheads, a mine cart section like in the Donkey Kong Return games, and a good showcase of the abilities of the two combatants; Knuckle's gliding and digging prowess, and DK's strength and coconut gun.
** Wolverine vs. Raiden was also quite spectacular and awesome, with the effects escalating with the battle itself.
** Hercule vs. Dan Hibiki has very fluid animation for a sprite-based battle, and pulls off several levels of zoom without looking cheap.
** Yang Xiao Long vs. Tifa Lockheart is proud to continue upholding the 3D battle tradition [[OffModel even if at times Tifa looks a little off]], with special mention going to the climax.
** Mega Man vs. Astro Boy displays gorgeous animation all-round- from the different projectiles and weapons Mega Man uses to Astro Boy's flight and laser animations, it's often considered one of the best-animated 2D battles so far.
** Pokemon vs. Digimon has some pretty good animation for the combatants, specially the climax between Mega Charizard and Wargreymon.
** Dante vs. Bayonetta has been rightfully praised for its visual flair, doing the HotBlooded action of both combatants' series justice. Even those who disagreed with the results praised Torrian's skill as an animator.
** Ratchet and Clank vs Jak and Daxter has colorful and amazing visuals with hilarious gags to complement the fast-paced action in the style of both games.
** Joker vs Sweet Tooth has fluid animation with an intense vehicular battle at the start and the combatants looking well-animated with nearly every little action they do.
** [[BrokenBase Regardless of feelings on whether the fight should have happened in the first place]], The Meta vs. Agent Carolina has stunning animation throughout, particularly when the two start using their various armor enhancements.
** Cammy vs Sonya's dynamic camera angles and special effects (with the exception of the close-ups on the sprite animations) have caused many viewers to declare it one of the best animated 2D fights of the series.
** Ken vs Terry has fast pacing where you can feel every punch the fighter throws, cinematics integrated smoothly with the animation and awesome visual effects. Many have declared it a huge improvement with respects the other sprite death battles this season, and some says that this was one the best 2D death battles ever.
** Amy vs Ramona is a wacky visual experience, with a fast-paced fight complimented with a beautiful background. This episode along with the last one restore fans faith in the 2D battles.
** Hulk vs Doomsday does both characters justice in a awesome way. No fancies choreographies, no hiding, no backflips, only a powerful brawl with plenty of collateral destruction. No wonder why the team have problems with the render farms. These two fighters are just too strong that they break everything.
** Zoro vs Erza is regarded by many as the best 2D fight in the season. The battle shows in a glorious way all the abilities the fighters are famous for, including Erza's magic armors and Zoro's abilities with his swords.
** Season 4 begins with a bang. The animation of Lara vs Nathan is spectacular. It has everything: gun shooting, melee fighting, an awesome background, vehicles race. It feels like you're seeing a movie that makes justice both characters and franchises.
** Scrooge [=McDuck=] vs Shovel Knight proves that you don't need some fancy 3D models or detailed sprites to make a very entertaining battle. With only 8bit sprites (and a good animator), you can make an awesome (and gory) show.
** Venom vs Bane adds tension and cinematography along with a fitting dark environment has made this battle one worth seeing not for flashiness, but well-built setups and memorable dissonance. Doesn't hurt to also see both Bane and Venom's villanous persona coming out.
** The long-waited Megazord vs Voltron is a huge milestone in the series. Torrian manages to put a fantastic fight with a beautiful choreography, more impressive if you take in account that neither character (including the individual Zords or humans) had detailed 3D models. They had to create them from scratch. And yet, it's been cited as one of the best animated fights in the entire series.
** Natsu vs Ace was also a very well-done battle. Mixing together the sprite and anime style of the fight, along with the heated atmosphere between the two fire-wielders it's one where it'll keep you on the edge of your seat. The death should also be worth mentioning for how graphic and detailed it was.
** The return of Zack to Screwattack was impressive. Android 18 vs Captain Marvel was a quick and splendid display of all the powers of both characters. It's feel like the fight was ripped from Dragon Ball Z (appropriate for one of the combatants)
** Metal Sonic vs Zero is a high-speed battle with several impressive visual effects, and even incorporates both 2D and rendered 3D models of both combatants, the latter of which are animated every bit as fluid as the 2D effects.
** After a series of fights with lasers, guns, swords, magic, and city-breaking hits, Balrog vs. TJ Combo gives us a good ol' boxing match that replaces all of that with tight choreography, intense impact, and close camera angles to make it feel real.
** Shredder vs Silver Samurai isn't just fluid, but also uses comic book-style cinematics that look awesome and do justice to the origins of both characters.
** Smokey vs [=McGruff=] was the first hand-drawn episode and it was praised for its originality and quality of the animation, with some people calling it like something straight out of the best times of Cartoon Network.
** Thor vs Wonder Woman is an awesome fight with an beautiful animation, intense choreography and nice changes in the background. It has perfect equilibrium between the destructive power of the Asgardian prince and the graceful in close combat of the Amazonian princess.
** In a battle between two of Shonen Jump's most famous protagonists, Naruto vs. Ichigo delivers with fantastic usage of both combatants and their arsenal in a fast-paced fight that gives it a look and feel to the fights of both anime.
** Perfect to close the season 4, which is generally well liked in the fanbase, we have Sephiroth vs Vergil. We have fast-paced action, an intense choreography and an awesome representation of the skills and power of these powerful villains.
** Raven vs Twilight Sparkle shows all the magical power these two characters have. Props to the animator for all the additional edits needed for the battle that have to be added manually, like Twilight's wings and Raven's Soul-Self. Even these don't affect the fluidity of the animation.
** When you think that the clash between the ORAORAORA vs ATATATATA was enough, you receive an dedicated team with original animation for the characters and the display of all the crazy powers of Kenshiro and Jotaro's stand, Star Platinum, in a fluid and quick display of manliness.
** Crash vs Spyro was the first CG fight of Season 5, and does a great job of showing Crash's bouncy insanity, as well as Spyro's elemental attacks.
** Sora vs Pit ended up being a high-octane battle, starting on the ground and quickly taking to the skies, complete with fluid animation and sprite work. Bonus points for when Sora uses [[spoiler:Stopaga]].
** Leon Kennedy vs. Frank West mixes smooth melee combat with fast-paced action by integrating zombies into the fight, and has been overall received by many in the fanbase to be the best looking fight of Season 5 thus far.
** Doctor Strange vs. Doctor Fate has very slick animation, made even better by how the early stages of the fight take the combatants to a wide variety of backgrounds without looking out of place in any of them. Extra credit to the water effects during the underwater segment.
** Ryu vs. Jin complements its strong choreography with a mix of 2D effects and massively destructive attacks from both opponents to bring one of the best 3D fights in the series.
** Samurai Jack vs. Afro Samurai is one of the series' few hand-drawn fights, and creates a great fight with fluid and fast-paced choreography with switches between camera angles that make it cinematic, intense, and even surprising between the two samurai.
** Carnage vs Lucy is a fight that looks like it belongs in a Marvel movie. The choreography and pacing manage to up the atmosphere and the spectacular voice acting and hand drawn animations manage to make this a fight worth watching.
** The new 3D animating team really did a great job on the Unreal Engine with Optimus Prime vs. Gundam. They create a great fight, changing between space and land, showing both combatant's expertise in long range and close combat, and including elements like hand-drawing for Amuro and Optimus's truck form. Many have called it the best fight of the season until now.
** Mario vs Sonic [=2018=] was animated by the same people who did Smokey vs Mcgruff, and the quality certainly shows. It has already received praise for [[SugarWiki/AwesomeArt its stellar animation]] as well as being a fast paced yet impactful fight , yet at the same time showing due respect to each combatants's showcased abilities and Power-ups throughout the years. [[EvenBetterSequel Many agree that it is of even superior quality compared to Smokey vs Mcgruff.]]
** Thanos vs. Darkseid is simply ''beautiful''. The episode does both of these godly supervillains justice, starting their titanic showdown in New York before it eventually reaches ''universal'' levels. Not to mention the work that went into the effects for both the Infinity Gauntlet and the Omega Force.
** Black Widow vs. Widowmaker features a beautifully cinematic fight, giving each characters' arsenal plenty of tricks across a city chase, and climaxing with a tightly choreographed hand to hand fight.
** Ben 10 vs. Green Lantern is an excellently fast-paced fight, even featuring fluid traditional animation for Ben's transformations and Hal's constructs.
** Weiss vs. Mitsuru is an impressive, fast-paced 3D fight incorporating beautiful effects and fluid motion from both combatants and their summons/Persona. ''RWBY'' fans [[spoiler:though still perhaps disappointed at Weiss' loss]] have said the quality of the fight scene bodes well for Volume 7.

* HypocriticalFandom:
** While not representing all of ([[VocalMinority or even the majority of]]) negative critics, there are sides that accuse the team or the other side of not doing any sort of research or being biased, even if they haven't done any research for who they're against and just like the character better.
** There's the fact they dislike matches because they involved No-Limits Fallacy, when they themselves have willingly used it on characters they want in Death Battle. [[note]]Examples include Superman having no roof on the amount of solar energy he can absorb, Batman with prep-time can beat anyone, Goku can and will surpass any limits in front of them, anyone with the ability to teleport is automatically faster than their opponent, etc.[[/note]]
** Some people will call out the hosts for arrogance and not respecting other people's opinions or evidence... and then claim their result and research is the right one and call the hosts idiots for choosing their verdict. This was clear in the aftermath of ''Android 18 vs Captain Marvel'' where [[spoiler: the Screwattack team forget to include the Gravity Formula when calculating the speed of Android 18 (by their own admission after the fight came out, undershooting her top speed by a massive margin) and miss a panel in the manga where Trunks says that Android 17 and 18 don't absorb energy (the analysis and fight animation assumed she could due to her having the ability in VideoGame/DragonBallXenoverse; addressed by showrunner Ben Singer on his Twitter account a week after the episode went live). In the end, even if the mistakes were accounted for, the outcome of the fight would have been the same due to 18's massive physical advantages, which would have been ''more'' lopsided in her favour if the former error was corrected]], but the response from the VocalMinority when they addressed the errors was '''scathing''', even from those who agreed with the result, to the point where they would have gotten less heat from not correcting themselves at all!
** A case specific to the Meta Vs. Carolina episode, in which the biggest complaint of the episode was the fact that the show used was "too obscure". The show in question, ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', had been running for 14 years at the time and still counting, making it simulationously both the the second longest running web series ''and'' the second longest running sci-fi series, and is shown on Netflix, being only one of two web series to be popular enough to do so (the other being ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', Rooster Teeth's ''other'' famous web series). Not to mention the obvious similarities between the two shows, like both being dialogue based humor, the host's relationship being very similar to the Blood Gulch Crew's and the fact that Sarge was Boomstick's inspiration. Meanwhile, ''Death Battle'' has two fictional characters fighting to the death...that's it. And in a case of {{Irony}}, ''Red Vs. Blue'' fans called ''Death Battle'' obscure as well.
** Many fans complained about [[spoiler:Red, a teenage boy, getting killed in his and Charizard's Death Battle against Tai and Agumon. Nobody seems to remember that children have died in Death Battle before (Yoshi's newborn which was killed by Riptor comes to mind), or how nobody minds that Luigi VS Tails had a half chance of an ''11-year old boy'' being killed by a grown man for no good reason -- aside from the visible implications that Luigi is attacking Tails out of sheer grief-induced madness over his brother's death at Sonic's hands]]. Then again, there was no indication that [[spoiler:there was a chance that Red (or Tai, for that matter) would die in the fight]], so this trope may not be in effect for this example.
** Weiss vs. Mitsuru was instantly lambasted for being "an obvious Weiss shilling" the moment it was announced, and many people immediately pegged Weiss as the winner. Come the fight proper and Weiss loses... but people complained anyway saying that Death Battle is ''still'' being biased [[InsaneTrollLogic by not having Weiss meet a gory onscreen death.]][[note]]''Death Battle'' has employed GoryDiscretionShot before - Buu, Captain Marvel, and Volnutt are just a few examples, and it's hardly an indication of bias towards ''them''. The post-match commentary reveals that a more graphic ending was originally planned, but ultimately scrapped, possibly because of the backlash against [[HarmfulToMinors Ben's graphic death]] in the previous episode.[[/note]] Others still have argued due to how one-sided the fight actually ended up being, that the whole episode was planned as an invoked AuthorsSavingThrow to dispel fan belief that the show is biased towards their [=IPs=]. It's all enough to make you wonder if they'll ever use ''RWBY'' characters in the show ever again.

* MemeticLoser: Enough to have its [[MemeticLoser/DeathBattle own page]].

** The Ruby Rose vs Ragna the Bloodedge DBX got a ''ton'' of backlash for this. Considering that it started with a ''[=RWBY=]'' trailer, prominently featured the main character of the series, was scored entirely with music from ''[=RWBY=]'', and Ruby's opponent was a character that [[MemeticLoser the series only ever brings up to make fun of]] -- on top of ''Death Battle'' being owned by Creator/RoosterTeeth -- the episode was immediately (and correctly) guessed to be [[CurbStompBattle an utter stomp]] in favour of [[CreatorsPet the company's golden goose]] before it even began. Even more so when in the fight itself, Ragna was nerfed even ''further'' -- by [[AdaptationalWimp not using any of his powers and abilities beyond his basic scythe-wielding]] -- and put up practically no resistance to Ruby.